Littlemill, our beloved, why did they close you? Why did those bad guys at Loch Lomond turned you in a ghost? That far 1992 had to be sadly gloomy, for sure. While we hang our head in shame (and it wasn’t even our fault!), we console ourselves a little by thinking that after the distillery was closed a good number of bottlings were released, mostly indie and often at a fair price, considered that we are talking about a forever closed distillery, indeed demolished. We find that the avarage quality of the contemporary single casks is pretty high and it wouldn’t be a surprise if Littlemill followed soon Brora and Port Ellen foosteps. While we wait for the prices to skyrocket, as happened to Rosebank, another famous lowlander dead distillery, we sip a 24 years old dram from the glorious Cadenhead’s, oldest indipendent bottler all over Scotland.
N: show time! We nose a complex fresco, full of nuances, which changes at each sniff. The first devastating impact is all about exuberant fruits: hints of tropical fruit, maybe maracuja, lychee and mango, yellow fruits then (apples and peaches in syrup). What is striking is that it has fruits tinged with mineral, fat, resinous notes: we’d says this is Littlemill at its best… then we find soft notes of polished wood, wood wax, beeswax. It has its own vegetal dimension, like resin. As if that wasn’t enough, it certainly doesn’t spare brioches, buttery pastry, marzipan. What a goodness!
P: Mamma Mia! This is compact like a few others and it’s a hard job to split its suggestions. Tropical explosions at first and it’s suddenly a mango carnage; fruity notes are again very intense, yallow fruits plus a sweet orange juice together with pink grapefuit. The bittersweetsour soul of the latter maybe represents the best summary for this Littlemill. In the end, that lowlander decent austerity is back, with herbal and fresh butter notes.
F: long, rich, fat, all playing on an infinite tropical endurance.
We would say this isn’t so easy to understand, and we like to think this is a connoisseur whisky. In our useless, modest opinion, it offers you the best that a Lowlands whisky can offer: fruity delicacies and sober suggestions of vegetable freshness. Here you find Ibr enthusiastic opinion. We go for a 92/100 and long life to the late Littlemill!
Recommended soundtrack: Apparat – You don’t know me
